Two blogs closed for their outspokenness

Reporters Without Borders condemns the closure by the authorities of two blogs Massage cream and Milkpig, run by local journalists. Both were shut down on 8 March by their blog service provider yculblog. "Online news and information is coming under ever greater control and this despite the rapid growth in the number of Internet-users,” the press freedom organisation said. “We are very concerned about the future of the Internet in China which the government is in the process of purging of all critical voices,” it said. Massage cream is run by Beijing journalist, Wang Xiaofeng, who comments on the news in a sophisticated style making use of metaphor. In an article posted on his blog and translated into English on EastSouthWestNorth (http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm), he said, "There is a principle in my blog that my posts must be different from what is published in the printed media. I wanted to write those words that the editors were not used to, or else I would lose interest in writing.” The blog was the winner in the “best journalistic blog in China” category in the competition held in 2005 by the German media Deutsche Welle (http://thebobs.de). Milkpig is a blog run by a journalist in Guangzhou (South). He does not usually deal with sensitive issue. Internet-users trying to access Milkpig or Massage Cream see the message, "For unavoidable reasons known to all, this blog is now temporarily closed”. The RSS flow for these two blogs however remain active so it is possible to access their content despite the censorship: - http://lydon.yculblog.com/rss.xml - http://milkpig.yculblog.com/rss.xml According to the website Danwei, a third blog, the inflamed prostate was reportedly closed at the same time for having covered events at the Beijing news - referring to the outcry caused, in December 2005, by the sacking of two executives at a Beijing daily. In November 2005, a blog run by political dissident, Wang Yi, was closed on the order of the authoritie (more details). One month later, Microsoft agreed to close the blog of Chinese journalist, Zhao Jing, even though it was hosted in the United States